Evaluation of companion animal behavior knowledge among first-year veterinary students before and after an introductory animal behavior course

Abstract

OBJECTIVE To survey first-year veterinary students' knowledge of companion animal (dog, cat, and horse) behavior and popular-culture (ie, pop-culture) behavior myths related to animal body language, motivations, and learning prior to participation in an introductory animal behavior course; evaluate potential associations between sources of prior behavior knowledge and knowledge on the preclass survey; and determine whether postclass scores on the same survey were predictive of final examination score for the behavior class. SAMPLE 156 first-year veterinary students. PROCEDURES Students were invited to participate in an anonymous electronic survey before and after a semester-long, 2-credit introductory animal behavior course. Demographic features, self-assessed animal behavior knowledge, and sources of prior behavior knowledge were evaluated as predictors of preclass survey knowledge scores. Postclass survey knowledge scores were evaluated for association with final examination scores as a measure of validity. RESULTS Preclass knowledge scores were low (mean ± SD, 49 ± 12.7%; n = 152). Reporting peer-reviewed journal articles as a source of incoming knowledge predicted 9% higher scores, whereas reporting magazines or online pop-culture articles as a source of incoming knowledge predicted 7.6% lower scores for preclass behavior knowledge, compared with scores for students not citing those respective sources. Companion animal ownership was not associated with preclass survey knowledge scores. Postclass knowledge scores were substantially improved (mean ± SD, 84.3 ± 8%) and predictive of final examination scores. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Results indicated a profound deficit of behavior knowledge among veterinary students at the start of their curriculum. Students graduating from veterinary institutions without a comprehensive behavior course may be at a disadvantage for day 1 competency in addressing animal behavior problems.

How do children view and categorise human and dog facial expressions?

“…This difficulty is also seen in adults who usually have had much more time to develop familiarity with dog faces, but their understanding of dog facial (Correia‐Caeiro et al., 2020) and full bodily emotion cues (Correia‐Caeiro et al., 2021) is generally poor and varies according to a range of factors, including the expressed emotion category, the level of dog experience or even the observer personality (Kujala et al., 2012, 2017; Wan et al., 2012). While these studies highlight the role of experience and indicate that there is variation in how human adults perceive dog emotional expressions, it is still not fully understood why humans generally seem to be so poor at identifying dog visual emotional cues (Demirbas et al., 2016; Lilly et al., 2020; Meints, 2017). One explanation might be that dogs convey facial behaviour in a very different way than humans do (Caeiro et al., 2017), suggesting that perhaps familiarity with dog facial expressions obtained during day‐to‐day social interactions (e.g., family dogs, contact with other dogs experience) is not enough, and instead specialised training in facial expression appearance and meaning might be needed.…”

Percepciones sobre riesgos ocupacionales en el trabajo con animales y motivaciones de los estudiantes para ingresar a la carrera de veterinaria

“…Como contrapartida, es poco probable que elijan esta disciplina quienes no se sienten atraídos por los animales, la ciencia o la medicina (Ilgen et al, 2003). No obstante, aunque los estudiantes poseen un deseo intrínseco y gran motivación para cuidar y trabajar con animales, tienen inicialmente un profundo déficit de conocimientos sobre sus comportamientos y poseen habilidades limitadas para su manejo (Dunne et al, 2018, Lilly et al, 2020.…”